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polydigm
King Kong Status
Posts: 2166
Registered: 1-4-2006
Location: Horse Tray Ya
Member Is Offline
Mood: Inspired
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Great stuff Bonny you're on quite a marathon there.
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Thanks!
Another small moment of joy came yesterday. I took part in the Dutch National Dictation, at home in front of the telly.
Het Groot Dictee Der Nederlandse Taal is an event that takes place between St Nicholas and Christmas every year. Two newspapers in The Netherlands and
Flanders write out a spelling quiz, and the 10 best Flemish and 20 best Dutch, along with 10 famous Belgians and 20 famous Dutchmen, take part in the
finals.
A famous author (this year: Gerrit Komrij. He translated Cats into Dutch) writes a very difficult dictation especially for this final. It's
held in the Dutch senate, read by famous newsanchors Martine Tanghe and Philip Freriks, and shown on both Belgian and Dutch national television.
It's very popular, this year was the 20th edition. The dictation was of mediocre difficulty compared to the rest, with an average of 29 errors in the
final.
I've always been on the good side of the average. Last year it was close, with 28 when the average was 29, but I've scored 12 errors on three
occasions and on one easier dictation I scored 7.
This year, I had 14.
The winner had 7, and came from Eindhoven too. Usually it's the Belgians who win.
To illustrate how difficult Dutch spelling is (it changes every 5 years), here's an example from this year's dictation:
...zij sprenkelde eau de cologne uit de eau-de-colognefles... No hyphen in the noun eau de cologne, but when it refers to the bottle, it DOES
use hyphens. I had this one correct btw. One of my errors was that jezusfreaks (Jesusfreaks) does not spell with a capital.
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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My Frank-N-Feather remake:
I like him! He has this neat expression!
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Batchain
Apostrophe Status
Posts: 128
Registered: 2-4-2006
Location: Boston,MA (Over your head and under your legs!)
Member Is Offline
Mood: Better than absolutely shitty.
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Worst moment of late: Being talked out of going somewhere (A club.) because, "You really won't like it there, I'm going with all friends you don't
know and they don't warm up to people they don't know, especially an older dude in his 40s (One of them is 42!) and, besides, you'd hate the
band that's playing. So you'd be mainly by yourself all night. It would be a shitty night for you.
But I was thinking, after closing most don't just want to go home so I was going to have everybody come here but with my mom still going through all
her depression it wouldn't be right to stress her out having my friends come here. So, I was thinking that if I kept mentioning you and talked you up
to them we could come back to your place and chill. You've got five rooms so that's really cool! Does that sound OK to you?"
And worse? Yes. The "contest" he won to have a "3 hour VIP Freebie" at was at the same club I brought him to at my expense -- no cover for either of
us because I knew the band -- but somehow (I still just can't fucking figure out how!) he made sure I had no idea there was any contest going
on at all. Well, $30 each way by cab and just under $40 in overpriced drinks. 22 hours to go and I ain't! I can't imagine the titanium balls on him
being huge enough to call and ask, "Can we come over to your place? The club just shut its doors. But if there's a complete asshole who could
and would he's the one!
--Bat 
 Photographic ArtWerk courtesy of Debutante Daisy sometimes known as Guacamole Queen. |
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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(Hugs Bat)
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Huck_Phlem
Sheik Yerbouti Status
Posts: 332
Registered: 19-10-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: cough*blowme* cough
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13 months later still no fucking child support! Now the county has fucked it up!
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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(hugs Huck)
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Huck_Phlem
Sheik Yerbouti Status
Posts: 332
Registered: 19-10-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: cough*blowme* cough
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I was supposed to be paid on the 1st but now it's the 19th and I finally got something but it's only half of what I was supposed to get. So now I
have to wait another two weeks to get the full amount for December?
Now I see why they have bullet proof glass at the child support office!
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aquagoat
King Kong Status
Posts: 2170
Registered: 15-3-2006
Location: France
Member Is Offline
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BBP
My Frank-N-Feather remake:
I like him! He has this neat expression! |
yeah, it's really good. 
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Thanks Aqua!
Prize for the worst reaction goes to DED:
"But he doesn't look at all like Frank Zappa!"
(then again, that was the point wasn't it?)
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aquagoat
King Kong Status
Posts: 2170
Registered: 15-3-2006
Location: France
Member Is Offline
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hahahaha
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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It's been very snowy out here. It was picture perfect when I first opened the curtains on Sunday, but minutes later it dawned on me: I'd have to
deliver newspapers in those conditions the next day.
Yesterday was pretty awful. We're strongly under-staffed, our extra currently does 4 rounds (and no small ones either). On Monday she got stuck in
traffic and didn't make it into work. Today she'd managed to get into an argument with the boss, but it's really she who pulls the strings.
Anyway the round itself was pretty miserable yesterday. Dad didn't bother to try and drive to work, so I saw him when I arrived at 7:11 (normally 640
on weekdays). I'd gotten up at 4:20 and left the house a few minutes later.
Today was even worse. It snowed again, not that much, but during my round. Egh.
And I cleared the snow from the pavement. I also made a little fort, but when I realized Dad would probably not appreciate that, I stopped working on
it and shoved the snow to the side.
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Huck_Phlem
Sheik Yerbouti Status
Posts: 332
Registered: 19-10-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: cough*blowme* cough
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You have a paper route?
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Sure! I've been a replacement-deliverer for 10 years. I'm only used if there are way too little people working there, and I've worked continuously
since June, before that I worked once a week, and last year I was stuck in another route for 6 months, so... We're short on staff, so if you can use a
little extra cash, you know where to come...
Problem is, we're all free-lance workers, so the bosses don't have to worry about increasing salary and free days etc. The pay is good at times of
economic bloom, but with the recession, well...
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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We've all had rough days today... I got up at 4:20 for my route, counted my newspapers, they were all there. As it's Christmas tomorrow, we had to
deliver to all our subscribers, even the ones who normally only get the paper on Saturday. Meaning I had to deliver some 100 papers, and I had to fold
in all the extras first.
The snow had mildly molten then frozen again, so it was rock solid, lumpy (ouch!) and slippery. It was pretty harsh.
Because I have so many thick papers I have to deliver them in two parts, so I go back to the delivery station halfway. While I was working, some moron
took 3 newspapers from me, and because I made a mistake, I ended up with 4 papers short.
Cycled back to the station and to the house of our boss, but I couldn't get any, so I thought "Screw them!" and cycled back home. It was nearly 8 when
I got there, all freezing.
Dad and I had planned to go to the store together. They have an all-you-can-eat breakfast at E 1,50, next to nothing. Besides we could use extra
groceries, as we forgot about Christmas.
But the car wouldn't start.
I later walked to the nearby grocers, bought vegetables and meat. Walked all the way to the nearest magazine store to get a newspaper as the shortage
had apparently affected the delivery of newspapers to the grocers and gasstation where I was.
Bought a newspaper. Went back home. Dad decided to try the car again. Cycled to the gas station with much trouble (snow) to get petrol (our car takes
both LPG and regular gasoline: you have to start the car with latter. We knew we were short on gasoline.).
Dad came home, after much slipping, with very dirty gasoline hands. The car didn't work, and now the house smells of petrol.
I went back to the grocers again because Dad was not happy with my selection (no christmas bread or any snacks) so I had to go back and get some more
stuff.
Oh, one of those days..
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aquagoat
King Kong Status
Posts: 2170
Registered: 15-3-2006
Location: France
Member Is Offline
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Poor Bonny! 
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Thanks! We're having a fun christmas right now though. We finally got round to watching one Hitchcock.
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MTF
Sheik Yerbouti Status
Posts: 431
Registered: 29-9-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: :booM
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We bought a new car today.
My wife's getting to be a big mucky-muck at her company. She was driving an eight-year-old Volkswagen - which is an okay car - but I thought she
needed something a bit more commensurate with her stature. So she did a lot of research, and decided that what she really wanted was a Honda CR-V.
Last weekend she told the local Honda dealer exactly what she wanted, and how much she was willing to pay. So this morning - the day after Christmas -
the dealer called her to say they had done a trade with another dealer, and that her car would arrive on the delivery truck about 1pm.
We got there about 1:30, and the car was waiting for us. We test drove it. Then we basically looked at each other and nodded. Two hours later the
paperwork was done, and we drove it home. As the Honda ads say, simple.
The best part is that our daughter, who got her driver's license a month ago, gets the Volkswagen as a late Christmas present.
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Aw neat MT!
Our car wouldn't start again today.
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BBP
Super Administrator
Posts: 8055
Registered: 3-10-2005
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
Member Is Offline
Mood: Cheerful yet relaxed
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Same story today. We had the car towed out a few minutes back. We're keeping our fingers crossed, hoping it can still be fixed.
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